NEWS FROM THE LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE

FALL 1997

A Permanent Home

It's been 15 years since the founding of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. In 1982, the Institute consisted of a rented electric typewriter on Lew Rockwell's kitchen table, and the names of a handful of individuals committed to free markets, sound money, and individual liberty

With the strong support of Margit von Mises, EA. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Murray N. Rothbard, and countless and growing members and supporters over the years, the Mises Institute has become an intellectual powerhouse in defense of freedom. Through student scholarships, publications, conferences, and more, we've reached countless thousands.

But even with more than a hundred cooperating scholars, and service to students and businesspeople the world over, the Mises Institute remains a small operation with a small staff. Our most prized asset is our indeperidence: from government, from the establishment, from special interests. Our first priority is to protect this independence, for it allows us to tell and teach what's true.

A permanent building for the Mises Institute that reflects that independence has long been our dream, and soon it may become a reality The spot of land is just across the street from the Auburn University business school. We're not planning a glass palace, of course. It will be a stately, secure, and permanent home that lovers of liberty everywhere can call their own.

What a relief our own building will be. Most of the space will be committed to caring for a rare and valuable collection of books on the political economy of freedom. Mainstream libraries are cutting back purchases. It's already getting harder to find the enduring classics (e.g., the wri tings of the classical economists).

Will there come a time when great works in the history of liberty cannot be found? We cannot let this happen. The Mises Institute library will preserve the classics, add to them with the best of modern scholarship, and carefully preserve rare books and papers (like Mises's own copy of Human Action and Rothbard's handcorrected manuscripts).

The library will also have plenty of study and research space. That way scholars and members from around the world have a place to do serious work, regardless of the prevailing political winds. It will display George Koerher 's busts of Hayek and Rothbard, and Margit's own personal bust of Mises.

The need for a freestanding office and library is urgent. Space in the building we're in is getting scarcer. We've been asked to surrender our seminar room and library; and this follows five previous reshufflings. Books are already in boxes instead of shelves. This fall quarter, we are having to scramble just to hold our reading groups and workshops.

But the building is far from a done deal. We have not raised all the money needed to complete it. And given our view of debt, construction stops when the money runs out. That's why we're asking members and supporters of the Mises Institute for help. Those who do contribute will be permanently recognized, so future generations will know who cared enough for freedom to invest in it.

THE TRIUMPH OF ROTHBARD

In the generation of Austrian School economists between Mises and the present stands a pivotal figure in intellectual history: Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995). He bucked the trends of his time to embrace economic theory rooted in human action, choice, and the moral imperative of freedom.

The academic recognition Rothbard deserved eluded him in his life. At last, it has arrived. First there was the two-volume An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic

MUR:JIP,LY N. ROiF"BAR D

THE .LOGICOF ACTION liNE

T.HE LOGIC Of ACTIDNTWD

Thought, which has emerged as a classic, Now there is the massive and monumental Logic of Action, a twovolume compilation of the best of Rothbard's work in pure theory published by Edward Elgar in its "Economists of the Century" series,

1n 43 essays, written over the course of a third of a century, Rothbard shows virtuosic ability to get to the heart of the burning issues in economics, from the real meaning of efficiency to the place of property fights in a civilized social order,

The Logic ofActior/ also features his wide-ranging essays on monetary theory and the gold standard, the place of Mises and Marx in the history of thought, and his seminal studies in the economics of pollution, courts and the law, taxation, and much more, Most of the essays had been buried in hardto-find journals and out-of-print books, How wonderful that they are available for the first time in many years,

As a special bonus, The Logic of Action includes a substantial amount of previously unpublished essays, like his devastating book review of an early pro-Keynesian textbook, his pre-publica tion report on James Buchanan's and Gordon Tullock's Calculus of Consent, and his detailed attack on the economics of Henry George and the Georgists.

Many of these unpublished essays have been photocopied and passed around for years, After many generations, the text became so light

AUSTRIAN SCHOLARS

CONFERENCE 4-

A highlight each year is the meeting of like minds at the Austrian Scholars Conference, As many as 60 papers, dealing with a wide range of issues from theory to policy to history, are presented over the course of two days. Like other academic meetings, it gives students and professors a chance to meet each other, share ideas, and even examine job possibilities. But unlike other meetings, the spirit is enthusiastic about the possibilities of human freedorn.

We've got an impressive lineup for ASC 4, April 3-4, 1998, at Auburn University James Glassman writes a twice-weekly column in the UUshingtol1 Post, in addition to his two television shows, What distinguishes him among today's working journalists is his vast knowledge of economics, For example, he understands the budget process as well as anyone, and exposes the truth about it. Indeed, he never fails to provoke argument with his unabashed support of free enterprise. He wiIl speak to LlS on the economic lies politicians telL

Two decades ago, Henri Lepage of Paris, wrote Tomo~70JJ~ Capitalism, a penetrating and highly optimistic forecast of socialism's doom and the triumph of the market, It became an international bestseller. Today, Lepage continues to write and work for free trade and an unres t ri c t e d rna rke t

it could hardly be read, and only specialists could gain access, Now for the first time, everyone can read them, and thrill to his ability to sniff om fallacies and spot the statist contradictions of his opponents,

Other features: "The Present State of Austrian Economics," heretofore published only in a French scholarly journal; "The Retreat from Marxism," published in a tiny circulation book; a hilarious piece on postmodernisrn in economic theory; an attack on the phrase "public sector"; and his inspi ring essay "Capitalism VerSLlS Statism."

The Logic of Action is a treasure, and one that will bring many of the best essays written in the history of the Austrian School to the attention of economists the world over.

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economy. He will be with LlS to reexamine his thesis in light of events, and offer forecasts on the future of liberty:

Jeremy Shearrnur; of the Australian National University, is a leading scholar in the thought of EA .. Hayek, who served on the board of the Mises Institute, Shearmur's new book, Hayek and After, which David Gordon of the Mises Review has called "outstanding" and "original," offers a startling new thesis about the Hayekian research program He will be with us to discuss his views, and invite comment and criticism,

Leland B, Yeager of Auburn University was recently recognized by the Templeton Foundation as one of America's "most hardworking and beloved professors of economics," He will speak on the analogy between language and market institutions. As a language scholar and one of the great free-market economists of the second half of the century, he is uniquely qualified to address The validity of this frequently made analogy.

There is an opening panel on the militarized economy, a closing panel on business cycle theory, and panels on arts, busi nes, history, theory, method, and much more, Write us if you would like to propose a. topic.

lAxED AWAY

Where have all the dynasties gone? They've been chewed up and spit out by the federal government's malicious inheritance tax, Since the turn of the century social engineers have seen this tax as the key

2

NE:\VS FI~m1 THE LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE • ['ALL 1997

DEATH TAXES:

THEORY, Hmos.!, AND ETIIiCS

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to destroying the power of private wealth and warring against family tradition. It's worked.

Alcxander Tabarrok, in his nearcomprehensive study in our series Issues i1~ Political Economy, shows that classical economists always believed that the bequest motive provides a key incentive to save, Take it away, and people are inclined to consume during their lifetimes and let future generations fend for themselves.

So why aren't economists today clamoring for repeal of the inheritance tax? Tabarrok, a former Mises Institute scholarship student, ingeniously discovers the source of the problem in a theory of saving that became popular after World War 2, This theory said that savings takes place only over the course of a lifetime. The implication: the inheritance tax matters not. Trouble is this does not fit with the facts,

Tabarrok also addresses the usual "moral" arguments for the inheritance tax, He refutes the notion that ail heirs are lounge lizards and weak wastrels, that society requires every new generation to have "equality of opportunity" with the last, and that heirs have not "earned" their property rights to family fortunes.

When the study appeared, the [ournu; ofCommerce excerpted a portion of it on their op-ed page. The timing was right. It appeared in the weeks when Congress was considering cutting the tax. Indeed, one of the few decent aspects of the 1997 budget bill is its ever-so-slight cut in inheritance taxes.

Rutgers University sociologist Irving Louis Horowitz wrote to say:

"It is a provocative and well-reasoned statement that is both scholarly in tone and wide ranging in public implication-the best of the von Mises approach to the social economy:"

Heilman is also translating a lost essay from the original German by Ludwig von Mises, written in 1942. You'll hear more ori this great discovery soon.

Mises biographer, Guido Hulsmann has also been with us to do some research at various archives in the U nited States, He is honored to be the recipient of a fellowship through Austrian School philosopher Barry Smith of the State University of New York, Buffalo,

In addition, our regular fellows have been hard at work on their studies and dissertations. Some find the time to also do outside writing. For example, Rothbard Fellow Mark Brandly; who is completing his PhD, wrote about the market for home schooling in the J.1{f/l Street [ournal,

What followed was a series of radio interviews where Brandly called for government to get out of the market for education, and the Home School Legal Defense Association took special note of his innovative article in its Home School Court Report.

EAl'VIILY HISTORY

The AtlJtricm Family Album . is a beautiful volume produced especially for our 15th Anniversary:

There's still time to register. The dinner and conference are September 26-27, 1997. By "family" we mean the men of courage and conviction who stood up to the prevailing intellectual winds to develop the science of economics with an eye toward human freedom,

The volume covers five centuries with a tremendous number of highquality photographs, You'll see J.B. Say in profile, Menger on a fishing expedition, Bohm-Bawerk in his military uniform, Mises on a walk in the woods, and Rothbard relaxing at borne. It is a book to treasure for years.

W]-]ERE THE LIVING [S RESEARCH

Summer is a great time for the best students to devote themselves to reading, research, and study. Many come to the Mises Institute to study the Austrian School at our instructional seminar; Summer fellows stay the duration and begin or complete research useful for their regular programs.

This summer, senior Catherine Heilman is with LlS from Wellesley College, and her research has focused on the economics of the market for rare art. She wrote a piece critical of a [ustice Department antitrust investigation into Sotheby's, published in the Journal of Commerce (July 10, 1997). Another is published in The Pree Market (October 1997), and still another is pending at a national business magazine.

"FRESHMEN"

We are very excited about OUI' large i 11 com i 11 g c I ass 0 f Mises fellows in graduate economics programs, They are hard-working, well read, dedicated to the ideas, and intend to pursue university teaching careers. They are the intellectual leaders of tomorrow, and it is thanks to the members of the Mises Institute that they have a chance to realize both their personal and social goals,

THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Iosefsima, a student from the Czech Republic, who attended the Mises niversity, went home to establish the

FAU. 1997 .: NEWS FI~O~1 THE LUDWIG VON MISES iNSTITlIlE

3

"Summer University of Liberalism." His program, sponsored by the Liberai Institute, exposes students to the writings of Mises, Hayek, Bastiat, and others. The Mises Institute was proud to be a cosponsor of the program. (Sima is also arranging for Mises's Liberalism to be translated into Czech.)

In Washington, D.C., Czech prime minister Vaclav Klaus has a reputation as a privatizer and deregulaton Sima told us this reputation is wildly overblown. Indeed, several months later; the Hkll Street Journal pointed out that the country's low official rate of unemployment is due to the survival of a host of indus rri es dependent entirely on government subsidies.

Far from being a free economy, as the propaganda suggests, the Czech Republic is more than half socialist. It still faces a rough transition to a market economy, but free-market economists there say the cauDu'y will be forced to make that transition as international markets for outmoded consumer goods dry up.

As another student at the Mises University, Gloria Zuniga, left us to begin her degree program, she found the time to write a piece for National Revie» in defense of an unregulated Internet. And speaking ofNR, it appears the editors have discovered senior fellow David Gordan's talents as a literary critic (see every issue of our Mises Review) and put him to work on books in their pages.

AMBASSADORS FOR THE

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

Student economics dubs enjoy _ having guest speakers representing many points of view. When they need an Austrian School speaker, they call the Mises Institute. Thus our senior scholars have the opportunity to be ambassadors for the Austrian School around the country.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, for example, recently spoke about the fundamentals of the Austrian method to a group of students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The group was very pleased to discover that economics is about much more than rnan ip ul a t i n g data and building econometric models. It is about real people and their economic choices, and the logic behind the social patterns that emerge in light of those choices.

CLONING A POLICY

A.merican taxpayers should not have to pay for cloning research, Bill Clinton said, for "moral and spiritual" reasons. Well, at least there's one industry he won't involve the government in. But aren't there quite a few other fields that merit similar treatment? There are "moral and spiritual" reasons why taxpayers shouldn't be backing the welfare state, for example. Lew Rockwell's column to this effect ran widely around the country

GOOD SHOTS

A student from Alberta, Canada, writes to tell us that his grandfather was in Mises's artillery unit in World War 1. Now this student is setting up a study group in Austrian economics at his university.

AUSTRIANS IN ITALY

A.t Austrian Scholars Conference 3, we were pleased to have Raimondo Cubeddu as a speaker. He's a leading Italian Austrian, teaching at

the University of Pisa, who is active in arranging for the translation and publication of many great works, and he gave a most provocative talk on the libertarian values needed to persuade the public to move towards libert)(

Another pleasure of meeting foreign academics is getting up to speed on the global influence of the Austrian School. It turns out that a new Italian journal rr ... __ '-"'~ called Studi Perugini "'--~_ discusses ideas at the intersection of Austrian and libertarian theory. Volurne 1, number 2, featured a symposium on the political theory of Robert Nozick and Murray Rothbard.

This coincides with the 1997 publication of Italian editions of Rothbard's Ethics

of Liberty, For a ISR,~~:l. 1>,). l{1Il%1':J;R

New Liberty, and an article on the decomposition of the nation-state from the Journal of Libertarian Studies. Also recently translated and published:

Mi s e s 's Liberalism and Israel Kinner's Competition and Entrepreneurship. With

this comes the rise of a generation of economists and, po-

litical philosophers exploring the tradition of liberty and writing in its

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defense.

AUSTRIANS AROUND THE WORLD

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Neranyahu has been battling labor unions on the issue of privatization. Many commentators have been taken aback by his dogged determination to free l1p the tightly controlled Israeli economy

Less well known is that his economic views have been influenced by the Austrian School. Shortly before

4

NEWS FROM TlfE LUD"WlG VON M1SES lNsTlTlJrE • FALL I 997

he took office, we received a memo from

him. He was personally ordering a copy of Man) Economy, and State by M u r ray Rothbard to be expressed to him. Who could read this book

and not be affected by Rothbard's ironclad case for the free market? Now all we need is a call from Clinton! We did hear from Moscow's Institute for the Study of the Russian Economy; which ordered Mises's Human Action and Rothbard's America's

MAN

ECONOM7.

AND

STATE

Great Depression.

THE WAY To

STUDY ECONOMICS

A staple of the Austrian revival has been the Human Action reading group. Hundreds have been established on campuses since the book first appeared in 1948 .. The Mises Institute has sponsored them continually for 15 years.

In that same tradition, our students at Auburn University have begun a reading group centered around Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State, a book of equal length and profound importance in the history of the school.

At a thousand pages, it will take nearly a year to get through, but it will be more than worth the effort. If you are passing through.Auburn, feel free to join us. TheMES reading group meets every Wednesday from noon until} :OOpm.

THE YEAGER SEMINAH

On Mondays during the school year, the Austrian Economics Workshop meets to discuss new and old literature. This quarter's workshop is being conducted by Leland Yeager, and it covers subjectivism, banking, and capital. theory. The workshop will center on

numerous debates Yeager has had over the years with other economists both inside and outside the Austrian tradition. It will touch on older works by Fisher, Weiser, Bohrn-Bawerk, Eucken, and new works by Garrison, Selgin, White, Boettke, Rizzo, High, and others.

w-' JOURNALS WORTH ~ READING

of government and destabilization of the rule of I aw

Finally, the Australian Hist'011 of Economics Revie1v (Number 26, Winter-Summer 1997) features a sympo· sium on "Essays on the History of Austrian Economics," with articles on Eugen von Bohrn-Bawerk's theory of interest, Fritz Machlup's Austrian influences, and Mises's theory of knowledge. Contributors include RAE contributor J. Patrick Gunning, philosopher Jeremy Shearmur, and Shigeki Torno. The guest editor is Tony Endres.

Not too many academic jou.rnals are worthy of close, regular reading, except, of course, The Review of Austrian Economics, Society, and The Journal of Libertarian St'udies. Another exception is Telos, a quar-

terly journal of lECOS poli tical philosophy.

It regularly runs arti- _'M_~'~_'

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des by our adjunct ~~'::~':;~~E and senior scholars.

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AUBURN EXCELLENCE

A LlbUr11 University'S economics department is developing a national reputation for excellence, in no small part due to the presence of the Mises Institute. The department was recently honored by the John Templeton Foundation and included on its Templeton Honor Roll identifying "outstanding individuals and institutions in American higher education."

ANOTHER YEAR,

ANOTI-IER BUDGET

Congressional leaders and the White House throw a party CO celebrate a new government budget. Can any sight be more unnerving? Even before examining the details] you know something is very wrong. If it were a good budget-huge spending curs, massive tax curs, enormous loss of Washington's pri vileges and power-the politicians would be weeping and wailing. We can hardly wait.

Why do they celebrate? As the Mises Institute publicized in the days leading up to the final vote, the btl dget includes targeted tax i ncreases projected to sap $45 billion in high-powered wealth from the econom)~ with uncounted and uncountable costs to the rest of LlS. Moreover, the budget includes a huge expansion of Medicaid, so more of the "poor" and their offspring can live better off the taxpayer.

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history of the rise of fascism in Italy, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe made the case for secessionism.

Yet another is Cultural Dynamics.

It too bucks the mainstream by running provocative ar-

ticles on the fundamental questions of social organization few others are willing

to touch. Hoppe's ar-

ticle "On the Law and

Economics of Social- '--- -'

Cultural Dynamics

ism and Desocialization" (appearing in Volume 8, number 3) argues that all steps toward collective ownership and economic control are necessarily steps toward impoverishment, while an immediate transition to a private property regime with free prices and an unrestricted righ t to con tract means the most prosperity

Hoppe also contributes to Uilues and the Social Order, Volume 3, a collection of articles on voluntary and coercive social orders. He takes issue with the claim that mass democracy is the political system most compatible with liberty In fact, he argues, mass democracy implies public ownership

fAll. 1997 • NEWS FROM THE LUDWlG VON MISES INSTrrUTI::

5

Budget shenanigans are as old as Capitol HilJ Itself, of course, and there's reason to believe that the political establishment is increasingly constrained in its ambitions. Nowadays, some tax cuts must be part of the package just to make it saleable to the public. It was not always so, and in politics this counts as progress.

THE PRESIDENCY

The Presidency is supposed to be .' the world's most important office, inhabited by only the highly accomplished, public spirited, and morally courageous. Can one man and one office really be as great as people say they are? Heavens no. It's often been an office held by scoundrels anxious to abuse their power, trample the rights of Congress, and squander the wealth of the people. Sometimes, they've murdered hundreds of thousands in the bargain.

Whatever happened to the ideal of a country without autocrats? Liberals celebrate FDR, Wilson, and Lincoln. Conservatives add Nixon, Reagan, and Roosevelt Junior. But who puts aside the hagiography and tells the truth? That's the purpose of our 1998 conference: "The Presidency: A Reassessment." We've already put together a powerful lineup (which we'll tell you about later). Meanwhile, the conference, October 16-17 in Callaway Gardens and Warm Springs, Georgia, is, as theVWrshington Times said, an event to look forward to.

MODERN ADDICTIONS

I have missed my Free Market," wrote Thomas Lehman of Indiana WesIeyan University when the post

office didn't deliver our newsletter. "I am beginning to experience withdrawal symptoms not unlike a drug addict without his 'dope.' Please continue my subscription and I will be glad to pony up if! have not already done so. Thanks so much for all you are doing for liberty and economic freedom."

CLOAKED 1AxES

Truth in advertising is not Washington's first principle. It may be its last. That goes for people who think phony insurance programs like Social Security can last forever. And it also applies to people who think "privatization" is the only answer. By "privatization," these advocates do not mean letting you keep your own money, but rather a new forced investment scheme that honest advocates admit means higher taxes.

We want steady progress towards a really private system. At minimum that means Americans must be allowed to keep more of their own money and not have it taxed away But according to D.C. economist Dan Mitchell, this is a radical idea that will be rejected, including, apparently by him.

Citing The Free lvlarket as opposing all taxes, Mitchell says that "many in Washington do not believe individuals are smart enough to make the right choices" so "it is highly likely that any privatization would be accompanied by mandatory participation." Sadly that would also mean increased taxes, which goes for Mitchell's program as much as for the proposals of Clinton's Social Security advisory board.

3,000 AND COUNTING

In the Spanish speaking world, the _leading provider of free-market editorial opinion is Carlos A. Ball, an economist who works from Florida. Some of his best material, he writes to tell us, comes from The Free Market and our editorial progralTl. The Hoover Archives has acquired his

colleen on of 3,000 articles since 1991, Abouttwo million people now read his material in 15 countries. In addition, we regularly receive correspondence from professors of economics who pass ant Mises Institute material to provoke discussion in their classes.

FEAR or THE MARKET

The Hkll Street Journal pu blished a piece by our student Shawn Ritenour, now teaching economics at Southwest Baptist University, 011 the problem of subsidies for symphonies. He too landed a series of interviews on radio. On Minnesota Public Radio he received an intensely hostile reaction at the vcry idea of cutting off government money to the arts.

But then, Ritenour told us, "one artist called in to say he was once a professional painter. One day, the market dried up for his services. He might have gotten a government grant. Instead, he used his talents as a jeweler.

"He was grateful for not getting a subsidy because it would have prevented him from earning his place in society, producing something people value enough that they are wi lling to pay for it, And, he added, artists benefit from low taxes as much as anyone. T was greatly impressed with his reasoning"

WHEN TI-IE MOON HITS YOUR EYE

YOU own a pizza restaurant that makes deli veries. A call comes in from the I1'IOst violent part of town. If yOLl send someone and he gets hurt, you are liable, So YOLl refuse. The ACLU brings suit. The city council mandates forced deliveries. But this policy conflicts with the Department of Labor's safe working conditions laws.

What ro do about this mess? Adjunct scholar Thomas DiLorenzo of Loyola College) writing in USA Today, says the market has already solved the

6

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NEW'S FROM THE LUDmo VON JVhSES INSTrflm:: • FALL 1997

problem. From research he did while visiting the Mises Institute, he found companies around the country that specialize in delivering to high-risk areas. And they do so at a premium, which is exactly as it should be.

Leave it to government to forestall market solutions through attacks on the freedom of association. But at least someone is willing to stand up for sanity at a time when the pseudo-principle of non-discrimination passes for civic ethics.

Incidentally, Dil.orenzo's article in The Pree Merket: on Jack Kemp's blowup at the mention of the roots of big government provoked a number of news items, as well as on-air interviews.

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INTELLECTUAL FIRE

TbeRcvielV of AHstri{.m Economics, volume 10, number 2, contains a number of important articles and notes .. In particular, Frank Shostak criticizes the anti-entrepreneurial implications of the "efficient market hypothesis," Parth Shah (a former Mises Institute scholarship student) examines whether the "option clause" can really save fractional-reserve banking, and Jacqueline Kasun shows how Austrian theory sheds light on the failures of government family planning.

Alexander Tabarrok provides a detailed assessment of George Reisman's Capitelism, And famed historian of thought Robert Ekelund casts a highly skeptical glance on Karen

Vaughn's soli psistic Austrian Economics in America, There are also notes by Harold Dernsetz , Ynri Kuznetsov (who writes from the Russian Academy of Sciences), Lowell Gallaway, and Richard Vedder.

Beginning with Volume 11, the Review becomes a quarterly, under the aegis of the prestigious and influential Transaction Publishers of Rutgers University. This change represents an exciting development for the Austrian School.

CRIMINALIZING IDEAS

I.n .the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing trial, the Los A 1'Igeles Times asked Lew Rockwell to write on its political implications. Rockwell blasted the government lawyers in the case for pretending as if not liking the government, carrying around copies of Iohn Locke's books, and wearing t-shirts with quotations from the framers, constitutes a motive for mass murder, The article was syndicated and swept the country

Indeed, the prosecution lawyers weren't satisfied with just getting their man. Witness after witness was interrogated on his view of travesties like the killings at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The point was to broadcast the message that being suspicious of government power might get you on a list of potential terrorists.

If these lawyers intended to chill public debate, [he thaw occurred very quickly. Weeks later polls showed a majority of Americans have a view of the feds that the media describe as akin to the "militias' ," but in fact only mirrors the framers' desire to avoid consolidation and government control of our lives. It was one of several recent nationally syndicated columns that drew wide attention.

THE VOICE

010' TIlE SCI.'IOOL

Coming up is our Fall 1997 issue of The Austrian Economics Netasletter: an extended interview with Jeffrey Herbcner .. As he demonstrates in this wide-ranging discussion, he is doing some of the most exciting research in Austrian theory today. And from his new post at Grove City College, he influences many excellent young minds, and has direct access to the voluminous Mises papers kept at the Grove City College library.

The Summer issue of the AEN was well received, both here and abroad. We interviewed Spain's leading Austrian, JCSLIS Huerta de Soto, about his intellectual influences and the movement his scholarship has spawned in Spain. He wrote LlS to say he has "received many positive comments on the interview, which is also being widely distributed in Spain." We also received many e-mail reguests for this issue from students at universities throughout Latin and South America.

PS.: A former high-level State Department official called to say he agreed entirely with Rockwell. And Elizabeth Currier, president of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, called Rockwell's article "the best statement on our life and times. Thank you-and bless you."

To SOCIALISM. lVLARCH

HoW strange that a decade after socialism unraveled, and its regimes were overthrown, pro-socialist tracts are pouring out of the academy Make no mistake: these books have dangerous effects. As the Gulag and socialism's contrived famines slip into history and memory, people, and especially students, are apt to adopt a sanguine ani tude.

I'I\U 1997 • NE\'15 fROM THE LUOW1G VON M1SES INSTITlITE

7

The Mises Review, published quarterly, exposes these tracts for what they are. The Fall 1997 issue takes on the huge compromises that John Gray makes with the socialist cause, and explains why Peter Salins' new book on immigration is a prescri ption for ever bigger government. In add i ti o n , he congratulates several authors for excellent new books on economics and politics that take a mare historically informed approach.

IN MEMORJAlV!

We mourn the passing of Institute Members Ralph Horvcen and Thomas Searle, bur are grateful for their generosity and dedication ro the ideas of liberty.

ALABAMA ALONE

G.overnor Fob James gives Alabamians braggin' rights. I-Ie recently stood up to a federal judge with a 35-page memo that actually explained the U.S. Constitution. It's probably a first in several generations. James explained how the Bill of Rights is supposed to bind the federal government, nor be used as a tool for the imposition of judicial dictatorship.

Moreover, James reminded the judge that Americans are not disposed to suffer a long train of abu es without doing something about it. Indeed, it's their moral right and duty not to take it. It's been a long time since governors talked this way:

As Lew Rockwell speculated in a nationally published column, "The unra veli ng of consolidated government may begin once again in Alabama."

Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito.

"Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more bolclly against it." Virgil

(In Notes and Recollections, M.i.scs wrote that while st.ill in h.igh school he adopte(l thiS quol.e as his lifetime moHo.)

Lu AND Orro

One of the joys of Mises's life was befriending and advising the young Otto von Habsburg father of the Archduke Karl who is a special guest at our l Sth anniversary conference and chairman of our dinner committee. In 1942, Otto approached Mises for his opinions on the future of Austria. What followed was a lengthy manuscript described by Margit von Mises as "perhaps the last important essay he wrote in German."

"Luwas convinced," writes Margit in her autobiography; "that history would have taken a different course if a man like Otto von Habsburg had been at the helm of Austrian government in 1914. Lu had the highest esteem for the archduke's moral and intellectual qualities and maintained this regard for him all through the years."

The Habsburg monarch); one of the most decentralized and classically liberal regimes in history, was targeted for destruction in Wor.ld War 1. Back then, it was common to think that only the Habsburgs stood between leftist dreams and the reality of global social democracy Few writers today can match the anri-Habsburg rantings of Lenin, Wilson, and Hitler, but just by renewing the ties between the Austrian School and the Habsburgs, we drew a hysterical attack from a D.C. partisan.

COJvIING SOON

A new Miscs Institute series-ArchiJ1c-will be devoted to bringing out the unpublished and lost

wrHlngs of the Austrian School. Authors to be included are Mises, Rothbard, Strigl, Menger, Ropke and more.

WISDOM AT Barron's

Gene Epstein, writing in the August l l , 1997, issue of Barron's: "You can't get published in that premier journal, the American Economic Review" unless "you write in higher math. And yet math has absolurely nothing to do with the interaction between people that economics is al.I about. (The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises aptly called his non mathematical magnum opu: Human Action.)" Epstein has a knack for explaining difficult concepts in plain terms. For example, ''Austrian economists pur it best: people ha ve a habit of putting the first units of a good to their 1110St urgent use, the next units to the next most urgent and so on." Voila, the theory of marginal utility

THE Post W{ES NOTE

The Washington Post "Style" section, among the best read in the paper, made a special mention of the Mises Institute's website (www:mises.org), one of three chosen ro highlight free-market thought on the Internet. A Post subscriber was being facetious in writing us: 'Congratulations, you're part of the Washington Establishment!"

SELDON SPEAKS

Arthur Seldon, famed economist and elder statesman of the British free-market movement, writes to praise the "magnificent work of the Mises Institute." "1 congratulate you and your colleagues on educating the world in Austrian Economics."

THE LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITlJTE. AUBURN. ~IA 36849-5301 334'84-4--2500: FAX J34-84.t-l.-2583: I::'MAII_ ~1AIL@~IISES.OHG